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Data from national orthopaedic and traumatology registries improve quality of future patients’ treatment
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The 20th EFORT Congress to be held 5 to 7 June in Lisbon, Portugal is just around the corner. When we started planning the scientific content for the congress some 18 months ago, we decided the main theme should be registries and their impact on our daily practice. At that time, we could not possibly have known that the topic of registries and their outcomes would be focused even more at the time of the congress due to the upcoming new medical device regulation process in Europe, initiated by the European Union Commission.
As orthopaedic and traumatology surgeons in Europe, together with the cardiologists, are the surgeons who implant most of manufactured materials in patients, we are greatly impacted by the new upcoming regulation. As all devices used in Europe in the future will need to be be evaluated and investigated regularly, registries are the most logical way of creating overview and documentation. So, our main theme for the congress this year is timely.
Innovation vs evaluation
What can you learn from the registry sessions in Lisbon this June? The Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA) will be the invited nation at the congress in Lisbon. The AOA has a unique joint arthroplasty registry, with new and important observations reported annually. Prof. Richard de Steiger from Melbourne will give his Michael Freeman Honorary Lecture entitled, “Innovation vs. evaluation: The role of joint replacement registries,” on Friday, 7 June at 12:15. On Wednesday, 5 June at 17:00, I recommend you attend the symposium entitled, “How and when registries make a difference,” during which four internationally recognized speakers will present their opinions. On Wednesday at 15:00 in Room Lisbon, together with AOA, EFORT will run a symposium on “Metal-on-metal hip arthroplasty outcomes: Remaining problems.” I look forward to this session and hope to learn if there still is a need to focus on the patients who received metal-on-metal hip bearings 5 to 10 years ago, and whether we can consider using these bearings again.
Implement registry results
A relevant symposium is being held on Friday, 7 June at 8:00 in Room Vienna is on, “Do surgeons trust registry data?” It addresses whether surgeons learn from the registries and implement the results of registries in their daily practice. Finally, on Friday at 15:00 in Room Vienna, there will be a timely [Network of Orthopaedic Registries of Europe] NORE Session, entitled “Benchmarking between patients, implants and surgeons.”
Although it may seem that registries will be the focus of a lot of the sessions at next month’s EFORT congress, this topic represents only a minority of the topics addressed in the approximately 180 sessions being held during the 3 days of the congress. There will be something for everyone. I look forward to seeing you in Lisbon and hope that you also will have time to enjoy the cultural and culinary parts of this wonderful city in Portugal.
- For more information:
- Per Kjaersgaard-Andersen, MD, is Chief Medical Editor of Orthopaedics Today Europe. He can be reached at Orthopaedics Today Europe., 6900 Grove Road, Thorofare, NJ 08086, USA; email: orthopedics@healio.com.
Disclosure: Kjaersgaard-Andersen reports no relevant financial disclosures.